So this is
it, our final full blog! We’ve reached
Week 10 in record quick time, or so it seems.
Since we last wrote, we’ve been kept busy with some usual activities,
some new work, and trying to avoid thousands of grasshoppers, but more on them
later…
The usual
work has consisted of teaching our final lessons at Compassion and English club,
and entertaining the kids in our last holiday
club sessions. It’s been a wrench to
say goodbye to everyone we’ve met through these activities, especially the kids
who are always so excited to see us and play!
Needless to say, there were a fair few tears shed as we drove away from
Zion Hill for the last time yesterday.
There were so many children crowding the team that the boys had to
escort the girls into the bus like bodyguards before Freddy, our driver,
hurried us away as if we were in a getaway vehicle!
We’ve also
been trying to finish up our various office projects. In fact, the production sub-team (Claude and
Debs, with the help of John) is working on the documentary about the Diocese of Shyogwe, even as I write.

![]() |
Stoves in various stages of construction and the finished product |
And so, a few
other highlights to mention…
![]() |
The marker pen (spoons) game |
Over the
last few weeks, we’ve got to know one of the ladies at church much better. Anne is a VSO volunteer from Kenya who is
here in Muhanga to help out at the local Teacher Training Centre. She’s been so friendly and welcoming, even
though she’s only been here about the same amount of time as we have! Anyway, it was Anne’s birthday last week, so we popped over to her house to help
her celebrate and enjoyed some party food and games. The competitive spirit of the team members
was revealed as we played snakes & ladders, and “board marker pens” which
is an alternative to the card game “spoons” (trust a teacher to have more board
marker pens than spoons!)!
![]() |
Group photo! |
The last
Saturday of every month is Umuganda
(Rwandan community service, where everyone gets involved in helping out in some
way) and so last weekend, we joined the Compassion students to help them tidy
up the area outside Zion Hill Church, hoeing the flowerbeds and weeding the
lawns. It was great to spend some time
with the students outside of the classrooms so that they could see we were more
than just teachers! We chatted away and
Mya was even presented with some pictures which one of the students, Grace, had
drawn for her to say thank you for her teaching.
![]() |
Hard at work |
![]() |
Gatenze choir welcomes us |
![]() |
Gatenze Chapel service indoors |
We sadly had
to bid farewell to Gahogo Church
last weekend, but they put on a special evening for us to say thank you for our
involvement and to pray for us. They also
plied us with tea, samosas and sweet breads before presenting us with
Certificates of Merit! It was lovely to
be able to hang out with the people we’ve got to know there and we have felt
very blessed by their support and encouragement.
![]() |
Amy with some of her snowflakes and our Christmas tree |
Now that we’re
in December, we’re very conscious that Christmas
is coming up fast, though it doesn’t really feel like it here, as Rwanda does
not go mad for Christmas shopping, lights and decorations like the UK
does. But on Sunday evening, we decided
to bring a bit of sparkle to Azizi Life and have our own version of Christmas. This included Christmas dinner (roast chicken
courtesy of Debs’ cooking skills!) accompanied by Christmas music. And the lounge was decked out in home-made
decorations (Amy is a dab hand at making snowflakes, and Mya, our resident
artist, drew some Christmas illustrations), complete with a Christmas tree with
lights supplied by Azizi. It certainly started
to get us in the mood for the craziness of the festive season that we’re about
to return to in the UK!
One
highlight of the past week which sends a shiver of fear down our spines is that
we have been terrorised by a plague of GIANT
grasshoppers! Or, at least, the
girls on the team have been terrorised…Claude and Isaie are entirely nonplussed
and have actually been our knights in shining armour, constantly coming to our
rescue by removing the pesky beasts from just about every nook and cranny in
our house. Many a time have they answered
a knock on their door and a pleading face, or responded to a high-pitched
scream as one of the girls gets the merest touch from an over-excited
grasshopper. But seriously, it’s been
traumatic! If the plagues of Egypt were
anything like this, then we’re certainly glad we weren’t around when Moses was
in town! For some reason, the rest of
Muhanga does not seem to be suffering from the same plight as Azizi Life –
nowhere else do they seem to be congregating!
Maybe they can just smell our fear…though the grasshoppers, too, should
be careful as on Sunday, Mya decided she would try out the “delicacy” of sautéed
grasshopper (apparently it’s meant to be a delicacy). Poor Graham the Grasshopper. But now, poor Mya, as it seems that Graham’s
family are now out to get her as they have landed in her hair and attacked her
mosquito net at night! Grasshoppers are
one bit of Rwandan wildlife we won’t be sorry to leave behind…
![]() |
Grasshoppers gathering... |
![]() |
Giant beasts! |
![]() |
Graham the Grasshopper - Mya's dinner! |
And so that
brings us to the end of our time here in Muhanga. On Friday, we return to Kigali for our debrief,
and then we go our separate ways – Rwandan, English and Welsh – on
Saturday. But even before then, we have
the prospect of more goodbyes to prepare for – with RDIS, Azizi Life, John and
Freddy. Big sad face.
For debrief,
we’re preparing a video to show the highlights of our ICS experience and so we
hope this will help us to remember all that we’ve enjoyed here. Once it’s ready, we’ll try to post it on this
blog too, so watch this space.
Until then,
all that remains is for us to say a HUGE
thank you to everyone who has been reading (well done if you’ve got this
far!) and supporting us. We so very much
appreciate it and we look forward to seeing you soon.
With much
love,
Team Champion
– RDIS Muhanga
x x x x x x
![]() |
We're going to miss this view... |
![]() |
The team with the RDIS staff |